Secondhand Serenade
by Teri Neko
Summary: It's never Lupus, right? When a young college girl's roommate starts having mysterious symptoms, she brings her friend to PPTH. Who knew that the young self-harmer would fall in love with a certain Australian.
1. Chapter 1

The tears poured down her face as she drew the razor across her skin one more time

The tears poured down her face as she drew the razor across her skin one more time. This made eight cuts now, the blood dripping down her arm as her vision blurred. A noise down the hall made her jump, tossing the bloodied razor into the open drawer next to her and kicking it shut. She hated to wash the blood away but her roommate was sure to notice.

Leaping up from the bed she quickly rushed to the bathroom and shut the door, making sure to grab her black Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie before clicking the lock behind her. She turned the knob on her sink, turning the water on, and thrusted her arm under the flow. It stung, making her hiss in pain, but she didn't remove her arm, watching almost happily as the water swirling the drain was tinted pink.

A loud bang on the door made her jump, twirling around and grabbing a towel, holding it to her arm as she unlocked the door, peering outside. She saw the shadow of her roommate fall across the bed, arms thrown over her face.

"You okay Evie?" she asked, still inside the bathroom. She couldn't face her roommate until the bleeding stopped, and razor cuts took forever to close.

"I'm fine Az. These lectures can fry your brain."

Az let out a laugh, checking under the towel to see if the bleeding had stopped. It had slowed, but that was enough. Throwing on her hoodie she turned the water off, opening the door fully and walking out of the bathroom.

"Ah, the price to pay for a higher education, huh Evelyn?" she asked, tossing a bottle of Advil to her before lying down on her own bed. Evelyn grunted her thanks before taking some, tossing the bottle in some random direction

Things fell silent between the two as Evelyn sat back and let the drugs take their effect. She took a deep breath, and then suddenly sat up.

"Evie?" Az called worriedly. Evelyn tried to take another deep breath, but winced in pain and began a coughing fit. Bringing a fist to her mouth to stem the cough, Az grabbed her hand.

"Evie, how long have your fingers been purple?"

&

Dr. House pushed the glass doors of his office open, tossing his cane on the desk before roughly falling into the chair. His crew in the conference room all got up from their chairs and walked into his office.

Dr. Cameron, with her brown wavy hair pulled up into a tight and professional looking bun, tossed a blue patient file on his desk.

"We have a new case," said Dr. Foreman, taking the chair across from House's desk. "Twenty year old college student, had a headache after a lecture. Took some aspirin, and then realized she was having trouble breathing. Her roommate called it in, when she noticed the tips of her fingers were purple."

"Could be lupus," Cameron said, leaning against the wall behind Foreman.

Dr. Chase sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair. "It's never lupus Cameron, get over it. It could be Acrocyanosis. She just came out of a lecture, so she was stressed out."

"Start her on Calcium Channel Blockers, treat the Acrocyanosis." House declared, spinning in his chair so his back was to them. With a heavy sigh from each, the doctors left the room.

&

Azrael was sitting in the chair next to her roommate's bed, her knees pulled up to her chest and her face buried out of sight. The sound of the door opening caught her attention and she lifted her face. What she saw made her breath catch in her throat.

He was gorgeous. His blonde hair just long enough to fall into his eyes, which were such a vivid green, much like hers, they seemed to emanate their own light. She dropped her knees to the floor, wincing ever so slightly as the material of her jeans pulled the fresh cuts on her legs.

"Are you alright?" the blonde doctor asked, in an incredibly sexy Australian accent, she had to admit.

"I'm fine, it's nothing," she dismissed rather quickly, getting to her feet, mentally checking that her sweatshirt covered her arm, which was still bleeding slightly. "I'm Azrael, Evelyn's roommate."

"I'm Dr. Chase, I'll be one of three doctors trying to figure out what's wrong with your roommate."

She nodded, tearing her eyes away from his face to look back at Evie, who was placed under sedatives to sleep. "It was so odd. She took some advil, and then suddenly she couldn't breathe. I went over to her to see if she was alright, and that's when I noticed her fingertips were blue."

Chase nodded, walking to Evie's bedside and grabbing her wrist, checking her heart rate. "Everything other than her breathing seems normal. I'm going to start her on Calcium blockers, and we'll see if that helps the discoloration in her fingers at all."

Az nodded, bringing her gaze back up to the doctor's face. God he was attractive, but most likely ten years older than her. Why did she have to have a weakness for blondes with accents? She watched as he left the room, the white lab coat billowing out behind him from the speed of his stride. Looking back to Evelyn with a heavy sigh, she reached into her pocket for the razor. Having her best friend in the hospital, with an undeniably hot doctor, brought on some new stress that needed to be relieved.


	2. Chapter 2

H'okay. I didn't put a disclaimer up last time because I was just excited to get the chapter up.

WARNING: Story contains self harming themes

Thank you to my three reviewers so far. It made me happy to read what you had to say

&

It had been a few hours, but the discoloration to Evie's fingers hadn't let up.

"The Calcium blockers aren't working," Cameron stated, as if it weren't obvious.

Things fell silent for a moment, House twirling his cane in between his fingers. "She took Advil that the roommate gave her before all her symptoms started up. Check her blood work for poisons. Maybe the roommate did something."

"She seemed like a nice girl," Chase protested. "Despite how she dresses she seemed genuinely worried."

"How she dresses?" everyone asked at once. It seemed that Chase was the only one to see the roommate.

"Y…You know, black pants with chains, black shirts, heavy eye makeup…" Chase stammered. "Like a Goth, but slightly more toned down."

Everyone stared at him like he was insane. "Well excuse me for spending time with my patient."

House snorted. "Like you actually care. You're about as detached as I am. Go do a tox screen please."

&

She couldn't stop the bleeding. The wad of paper towels she had clutched to her wrist was quickly turning red. She didn't go too deep this time she couldn't have. It was impossible; she barely used any pressure. It wasn't too deep, it just wasn't.

"Oh god, oh god," she chanted to herself, grabbing more paper towels and replacing the blood soaked ones. She felt dizzy, so she sat on a toilet. "Oh god, oh god…"

Taking a deep breath she lifted the paper towels from her wrist, peering at the damage. The bleeding hadn't stopped, but it had slowed considerably. Sighing in relief she opened the stall door, pulling her sleeve down, and tossed the paper towels into the trash.

She walked back to Evie's room, pausing when she saw Dr. Chase and a black doctor drawing some blood from her. The sight of the red liquid made her throat tighten and her fingers twitched. The black doctor looked at her curiously.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, taking a step closer.

"We're drawing blood to test for drugs, just to be sure," the black doctor, who's nametag said Dr. Foreman.

"She doesn't do drugs, I told you that. Well, I told him that," Az said, gesturing to Chase.

"Azrael, that's an interesting name…" Foreman said, turning away from her and back to Evie.

"My parents were a bid odd. Makes sense, seeing how I turned out. What does my name have to do with any of this?"

"It doesn't, I'm just making light conversation."

Az sighed, running a hand through her silky vibrant red hair. Her sweatshirt tugged on her arm and she jerked it away, wincing slightly.

"Are you alright?" Chase asked, letting Foreman take over the blood work as he stepped over to Az. He noticed she inched away, tugging the arm of her hoodie down farther.

"I'm fine, it's nothing. So the blood work will tell you what?" she asked, avoiding his gaze.

"Any drugs that she has taken, or if someone had poisoned her…" Foreman said, letting his voice trail off. He glanced at Az, noticing her eyes narrow in anger and her hands going to her hips.

"You think I poisoned her? What possible motive could I have had? She's my best friend; I wouldn't do anything to hurt her. And if I had poisoned her, why would I have even brought her here? Don't you think that I would have just left her to die?"

Chase shook his head. "We're not accusing anyone of anything. We're just covering all of our bases. We need to check for everything in order to help her. No one is saying that you poisoned her. We just need to be sure."

Az sighed and shook her head, turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.

Chase looked back at Foreman. "She's definitely different."

"Have you noticed that she's very careful with her arm? When she moves it she winces..." Foreman said, taking the vial of blood and placing it in his lab coat pocket. "What do you think that means?"

Chase shrugged. "It could be anything. She could have bruised it, she could have a healing fracture. Who knows..."

Foreman shook his head. "No. With the way that she dresses and the way that she acts, it has to be something significant."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I think that our patient is not only the girl in this bed, but the girl who brought her in."


	3. Chapter 3

Alright. Apologies up the wazoo for the delay. I've been sitting on idea's for this story for a while. Unfortunately I have a tendancy to forget stories and loose muses for them just as things start to get good. I'm determined not to have that be the case this time.

So yea this chap didn't quite go the way I wanted it to, but I can't change it. I don't quite know how to get it where I want it to so I'm just gonna wing it. It tends to go best that way anyway.

&

Az walked into Evie's hospital room, seeing for once her friend had her eyes open. Smiling slightly Az sat next to the bed, placing her hand on her friend's.

"I thought they sedated you…" Az said in a quiet voice. The hospital felt like a library to her, she had to whisper in fear of disturbing someone.

Evie shrugged. "I guess they decided to take me off. My fingers are still purple, no matter what they try… How are you?"

It was Az's turn to shrug. "Alright I guess. I'm worried about you. I had to go to classes today though, I'm falling really behind. I stopped by your classes and got you makeup work, and I only brought the easy stuff to do."

Evie smiled. "Thanks… now I have to do the work."

Both females couldn't help but laugh. Things quickly fell silent as Az took her hand back and placed both in her lap. She heaved a heavy sigh.

"The doctors suspect that you were poisoned… by the advil that I gave you…"

Evie looked at Az, worry etched into her features. "Az…"

"Evie you're my best friend… I would never hurt you. Never… you know that right?"

Evie nodded, her eyes welling up with tears. "I do know that Azrael, and if they insist that you did, you tell them. I know you don't take any bullshit, arrogant doctors included."

Az smiled a small smile, looking up at Evie with tears in her eyes as well. She quickly blinked them away. It calmed her slightly to know that her friend held no ill will towards her.

"The doctors still don't know what's wrong with me do they?" Evie asked, her eyes falling downcast. "They've sedated me, took test after test and still can't figure out why my fingers turned p…"

Az lifted her gaze and looked at Evie. The girl's face was red, and suddenly the monitors she was hooked up to began to beep erratically.

"Evie?" Az cried out worriedly. She jumped to her feet, a hand on Evie's. "Evelyn?!"

She heard the door open behind her and a female voice called out. "She's crashing. I need a cart in here!"

Az looked to the owner of the voice and saw it was a female in a white lab coat, obviously a doctor. She remembered Dr. Chase saying something about being one of three, and she met Dr. Foreman already. Was this the third musketeer?

A nurse gently grabbed Az's arms and pulled her away from Evie's bedside. Immediately she fought. "No! No! What's going on? Why isn't she breathing? What's happening?"

A stronger pair of arms wrapped around her, gentle yet firm, and geared her out of the hospital room to the hallway. She abruptly turned to see it was Chase.

"What's going on?" she cried out, tears forming behind her eyes again. "What's happening?"

Chase heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his blonde hair. "She's not breathing, causing her heart to stop."

&

Evelyn's breathing was stabilized, along with her heart rate. Unfortunately she fell into a sort of coma, eyes closed and responses, minimal. House's team sat in their designated chairs in the conference room, staring at the whiteboard as House wrote in the latest symptom.

"Alright, tachicardia, a new ball to play with. What does it mean?" House asked, looking at his ducklings expectantly.

" Lupus. Her body is allergic to itself, causing lung function to fail." Cameron insisted.

"I think she was poisoned. Whatever it was is attacking her respiratory system now."

Things fell silent, all opinions being heard apparently. "Chase what do you think?" House asked, limping over to the blonde Australian and throwing the oversized tennis ball at him.

"I-I think we don't know enough about her environment to rule out poison, and we don't have a well enough documented history to rule out lupus."

"Excellent Chase. Way to have an original thought. Chase, Cameron, go to the dorm room and check for poisons, environmental causes, whatever you can find. Just get the information."

&

Breaking into dorm rooms was surprisingly easy. The handle took very little coaxing to wield to Chase's will.

"It's clean for a college dorm," Cameron marveled, looking inside.

"They're girls. Unless you're admitting that your dorm in college was a mess." Chase snickered, turning on a flashlight and casting the beam across the room.

"Well no, I was neat. But kids these days…"

"They're not that much younger than us. Ten years isn't a lot of time, really."

Things fell silent as Cameron moved to Evie's side of the room. "Two beds, two dressers, two desks, how can we tell who's side is who's?"

Again Chase snickered, angling his beam to fall on the Jack Skellington poster, and then moved it to the Bullet for My Valentine poster beside it. "I think this side is Az's."

Cameron hesitated before answering. "If it's poison, chances are Az hid it in her things. Check her stuff too."

Chase nodded, lowering his flashlight to the nightside table. With gloved hands he carefully sifted through the notebooks, novels, cough drops and, oh god, condoms, before his hands fell still.

"Foreman was right," he mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Foreman said that something serious was going on with Az. Said she was very careful with her left arm… winced every time she moved it. And this…" he paused to hold up the blood stained razor he found in the flash light's ray. "This is why."

Cameron paused, looking at the razor curiously. "She's a cutter."

"Obviously. How many people who aren't cutters have bloodied razor blade's in their night table drawers?"

Cameron sighed, taking the razor from Chase and placing it in a bag. "So she cuts, and by the look of the dried blood I'd say a lot. What does this have to do with Evelyn's diagnostic?"

"Nothing, really. But Evelyn isn't our only patient. We have to look out for Az too."

&

"So she cuts," House said bluntly, looking at the razor Cameron dropped on his desk. Chase glanced over at Foreman who couldn't help but smirk in a very smug manner. "So what?"

"So it's not poison, or Lupus," Cameron interjected. "It's stress. If your best of all best friends is hurting herself on purpose, you'd be stressed out. Oxygen levels are low from erratic breathing, causing fingers to turn purple."

The team fell silent. "It sounds likely," House said after a moment. "Confront the roommate."

"I'll do it," Cameron said, jumping to her feet. "You wouldn't know what to do with a distraught female," she joked lightly to her colleagues.

Foreman cracked a smile and surprisingly so did House, but Chase remained somber.

Cameron left the room and Foreman turned to Chase. "Dude, that was a good joke. What is up with you today?"

"Az is such an individual. She's probably gotten so much crap for how she dresses, for her music, her lifestyle. It's…." he paused, glancing at House before deciding to continue. "It's almost beautiful."

&

Ack. Reviews make me happy and a happy author is an author that updates more frequently!


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay I'm going to assume most of you haven't read the new Chapter 3. DO IT.**

**Once you have, enjoy this next chapter. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.**

**A million thank yous to my reviewers, of course.  
**

&

Az stood outside of Evie's hospital room; arms crossed over her chest, and peered inside. They had managed to stabilize the female but her heart rate was still dangerously low. Biting her lip Az decided against going inside and instead sat on a bench across the hall. She glanced side to side to see if anyone was coming. Naturally it was a hospital so the hallways were filled with people, but no one was coming her way. Discretely she pulled back the sleeve of her hoodie to peer at the cuts she had made only a moment ago.

"Azrael?" she heard a feminine voice call out to her and quickly she pulled her sleeve back down. She turned her head and saw the female doctor from before, the third musketeer.

"I'm Doctor Cameron," the woman continued, taking a seat beside Az and looking at her with very large but caring brown eyes. "We got permission from your headmaster to search through your dorm room, to see if there were any poisons that Evelyn could have accidentally taken."

Az sat quiet as Cameron let the statement wander off. She wanted Az to finish, to make her own assumptions.

"Of course you guys went through my things too," she said, turning her emerald green eyes to the other female. "And I know what you found, so just get on with it."

"Az, there are people, people here, who can help you. You don't need to do this."

Az scoffed and got to her feet, walking to Evie's door before stopping. "You don't get it. You're successful; you're pretty. I bet you Dr. Chase is falling over himself to get to you. I don't have those options. People see bondage pants and violent red hair and they don't get any closer."

"Then change Az, make yourself desirable. If you feel you need it then isn't it worth it?"

Az locked eyes with Dr. Cameron in a cold, hard gaze. "I refuse to change who I am, into someone society calls pretty, calls attractive. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and as much as it may hurt to know that I don't fit the mold, I wouldn't change for anyone in the world."

Az began to walk away but a strong and gentle hand stopped her. She turned to see Dr. Cameron standing now. "Az, you need help. I can't let you walk away knowing what you do to yourself. You're my patient too."

Az clenched her jaw and wrenched her arm out of Cameron's grip. "Why don't you focus your attentions on Evie? She needs you more than I do right now."

&

There were people in the bathroom. But god she needed to do this. Her fingers were literally shaking with need. It was red hot in her pocket, just begging to be used. She needed this, needed to make more, bleed more. She had to, if only she could find an opportunity.

Walking down the halls she glanced at some doors. The sign between them said "On Call Rooms". Doctors who were forced to stay all night would sleep here, closer to their patients. Pulling one open Az was pleased to see it empty. She flicked on the light and closed the door behind her, flicking the lock down so she was secluded inside.

She carefully reached into her pocket and pulled out her brand new razor. So the doctors knew what she did. Well, she wasn't the one listed on the roster, it was Evie, and it was Evie who needed their help. Az didn't need help; she didn't need anyone, not really. She just needed this sharp piece of metal.

She pulled back her sleeve and examined her arm. She had barely any space left to cut. From her wrist to her forearm was covered in red gashes, red lines, and some just red welts that would fade in a few days' time. Biting her lip she placed the razor in between her teeth while she secured her sleeve so it wouldn't fall. She took the razor back between her fingers and poised it above her skin.

A loud knock made her jump, the razor falling from her fingers to make an air light tink on the floor.

"Az?" a vaguely Australian accent called to her. "Az someone saw you come in here and I think you should come out. Evie's heart is doing better, almost good enough to wake her. Why don't you come out?"

Cursing under her breath Az knelt down and picked up the razor. "I'll be out in a sec," she called, poising the razor above her skin once more.

The knocking continued, but Az tried her best to ignore it. With one quick slash the trembling in her fingers eased up slightly. Still Chase knocked and Az swore under her breath again.

"Az?" a different, slightly more nasally voice called. "What kind of name is that?" she heard the new voice mutter, as if to be said under his breath. "You have three seconds to come out before we have security break down the door."

She closed her eyes briefly before making another slash, and another, trying her best to ignore the banging. One last slash and she was finished, tucking the piece of metal away and quickly pulling the sleeve of her hoodie down. She flicked the lock of the door up and pulled the door open, peering at a pair of ice blue eyes.

"Glad of you to join us. I'm Doctor House, and there are some things we need to discuss."

&

"No," she said again, refusing to look at him.

"And selfish as you are you refuse to believe that you're the one really hurting her. Great job Cameron, the message really got through."

"Stop it," she said, keeping her eyes on the table and her arms crossed over her chest.

"Your best friend knows you're a cutter. Oh the stress what is she going to do? Lack of oxygen to her extremities turns her fingers purple. But lord you're selfish enough you'll keep cutting-"

"Stop it."

"-causing her lungs and heart go into over drive and thus failing completely-"

"Shut up."

"So all in all you caused this. Seeing a councilor will help you and help Evie. But you won't get help will you? No, again to my 'you're selfish' point, you won't do that-"

"STOP IT!" she screamed, leaping to her feet and finally glaring at him with wild, angry eyes. "Evie doesn't know! She would have said something. You can't say these things you don't know her. You don't know me. If I were selfish I'd tell her, and keep cutting while she knows. But NO! I'm hiding it. From the world and from her and this is the first time in YEARS I've used the word cutting, so I'm hiding it from myself too. Just. Stop. Talking."

Everything fell silent in the room and Az couldn't help but spare a glance at Dr. Chase. He was looking at her with what seemed to be concern in his eyes. Everyone was, even House. Closing her eyes for a brief second she looked at Chase again before shifting her gaze to House. She pulled back her sleeve and held her arm up for him to see.

"Yeah, I've got problems. By the sounds of things, so do you. But see, I'm still alive, healthy and breathing just fine. Evie however, she's not. She needs your attention a hell of a lot more than I do, so why don't you stop harassing me, and help her. It's not stress. See college these days is a hell of a lot harder than when you were enrolled. You think you were stressed? Please. She's not stressed, at all. It's something else. So pursue another theory and leave. Me. Alone."

Pulling her sleeve back down she turned and stormed out of the room. Thrusting her hand into her hoodie pockets she didn't slow her gait until the cool fall air of New Jersey caressed her face. God what was she thinking? Showing the doctors like that? And what was House thinking, attacking her like that?

"Az!" she faintly heard someone calling behind her but instead she closed her eyes, letting the cool breeze brush against her skin again. A small smile played on her lips as the voice called her again, this time closer, followed by a hand on her lower back.

"Az?"

She turned to look, her eyes catching the green gaze of Dr. Chase.

"You want to go get a drink?" she asked.


End file.
